Swinging his cleaver in an overhead cut, Korston brought it down on the enormous collection of living tissue before him. Not wanting to get covered in blood, I kept my distance until he was done cutting. After a few blows, he held out a large piece of meat toward me. “There you go. That’s basically all there is to it.”

Leaning in to examine it without actually touching it, I saw it was covered in a fine layer of tiny mites. Beyond that they were vaguely insectoid in appearance, they were too small for me to make out much detail. From a short distance they appeared as red dots of a slightly different shade to the flesh they clung to. I gestured for him to put the chunk away and he tossed it down beside the rest.

“Is this what you guys do all day then?” I looked past him to the other workers, still hacking away.

“Mostly. At least when it’s harvest time.”

“And how exactly can you tell it’s harvest time?” I couldn’t imagine it had much to do with changing seasons, not when it was underground.

Korston shrugged. “It’s not hard. We just have someone check down here every day until it starts growing in our direction again.”

“And what if it doesn’t?”

“Doesn’t what?” The look he gave me was a mixture of incomprehension and annoyance, like he had no idea why I was asking him such inane questions.

“Doesn’t grow back this way.”

Scuffing his shoe against the ground, he blew air out from between his lips. “I suppose we’d be pretty fucked then. Probably have to abandon the village and follow wherever the Carnis has gotten to. Not a lot of other choice.”

“You’d do so without even asking for Lady Sarinknell’s permission?”

He looked at me like I was an idiot. “Unless she wants to try and force us to starve, I don’t see why her permission matters the least bit.”

I was starting to get pretty sick of the village head’s attitude at this point. Couldn’t he see I was just trying to do my job? “Have I offended you in some way?”

“Offended? I suppose that’s a word for it. I can’t say I much like having someone like you stumbling around the place, we’ve got plenty of work to do as it is. If you’re worried about offending us, maybe you should just go back to your fancy house and leave the actual work to the people who know their business. How’s that sound?”

The villages had all stopped work at this point to watch. I wasn’t sure what they were expecting, some sort of altercation? Or was this a show of support for their leader’s concerns? He was definitely upset. That, or he was just trying to provoke me. Either way, it was probably best to defuse the situation diplomatically. “I understand that my presence here may be both annoying and disruptive, but I’m not here at your pleasure; I’m here on the order of Lady Sarinknell.” I swept my gaze across the group. “So, if you have any complaints, I suggest you take them up with her. If you don’t wish to do so then I suggest you cooperate; it’ll only make things easier for both of us. That way I’ll be out of here and you’ll be free to work as soon as possible. How does that sound?”

Korston looked away, grumbling under his breath and the tension dissolved. Good, I was starting to wonder how this was going to turn out. I was all too aware of how unpredictable the demons could be, who knows what path things might have gone down had we continued. Though I would have preferred to address the problem, whatever it was, directly, this was good enough.

I had neither the interest or the investment to want to pry into their lives more than my job dictated. Hopefully that was the sort of professionalism they could respect, or whatever passed for professionalism in this place. Not wanting the conversation to swing backward, I continued before Korston had a chance to formulate a reply. “Now then, are there other worksites down here? If so, I’d like to see them too if that’s all right.”

Still grumbling along the way, he showed me several similar chambers where they were carving pieces off the Carnis. The work seemed to be proceeding briskly at each. “How long is this harvesting period usually?”

“A few days on, a few days off.”

“All year round?”

“There’s long breaks at times, but something like that.”

This really was nothing like farming, I’d expected everything to run on a schedule and be planned out ahead of time. What they were doing sounded closer to following migrating herds or something; they didn’t seem to have much control at all in regards to the time. Even just hearing about it was a little annoying, I could see why the villagers might be irritable. Even if only the village head acted that way from those I’d met so far. “Is this the whole operation then?”

He grunted “What do you mean?”

“What do you do with the meat after you’ve harvested it? Do you just send it off like that?”

“We send some of it off to the manor while it’s fresh, the rest we either eat or preserve.”

“Preserve? Do you mind showing me how that’s done?” My first thought would be salting, but I don’t know where they’d get the salt around here. Were they just drying it or something then?

“Why?” He sounded exhausted, though I felt like most of it had to be an act.

“It seems like a fairly important part of the process. Possibly even more so than the actual harvesting. Without proper preservation- “

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He held up his hand to halt the stream of what I was saying. “Okay, I get it. I’ll show you the drying hut.”

We returned to the surface and I took a deep breath. It was nice to be back up here in the fresh air, away from the terrible odour of all that raw meat. Even the glare of the twin suns was welcoming at this point. Maybe I was getting used to this world after all or at least the overland portions of it. The hut he took me to was of similar size and construction to the houses around it but with an open top. A thick stream of smoke rose into the sky above and there was a strong smell of burning wood and cooked meat. Korston gestured toward it. “Well, here it is. I’m sure you can find your way inside, whoever’s working in there right now can show you how it goes.”

With that, he went back toward the tunnel. It was a bit of an abrupt departure but I can’t say I was sorry to see him go. His sour attitude was something I could happily do without. I knocked on the wall of the hut and stepped inside. The knocking was really just a formality, it’s not as if I expected people to be doing anything private where they were smoking meat. The aroma of woodsmoke and meat got stronger as I entered, pleasant as it was it was also a little overwhelming and I covered m nose with my sleeve. A pair of villagers sat cross-legged inside, anonymous in their robes. Looking over their shoulders at me, one of them gestured for the other to stay and got up. “Hello again.” It was the woman who’d guided me before. “I hope my grandfather didn’t give you too much trouble.”

“No, no trouble. He wasn’t exactly polite but I’m sure having someone like me bumbling around your workplace is a pain.” I gave her a smile, intended to reinforce the self-deprecating nature of my words.

“That’s good.” The sincerity in her tone was surprising, I guess not all of the villagers were so unwelcoming. “Was there something else you needed?”

I cleared my throat. “I was wondering if you could tell me more about how the meat is preserved.”

“Oh, sure.” She gave me an extensive explanation of how the meat was prepared, smoked and processed for transport which I tried to commit to memory. It wasn’t exactly important, but anything that gave me a better understanding of how my new world functioned was valuable. Once she was done, I nodded and thanked her for her time.

She cocked her head “Are you going back to the manor now?”

“That was the idea, why?”

“Do you want something to eat before you go? I’m sure walking around all day makes for hungry work.”

I gave her a polite smile. “Oh, I wouldn’t want to put you to any trouble.”

“It’s no trouble, I was thinking it was about time to get supper ready anyway. I can easily cook you something up as well.”

Spending so much of the day around raw meat hadn’t given me much of an appetite but it had been a while since I’d eaten. “Then sure.”

She brought me into one of the houses and left me to sit on the rough floor while she went into the small kitchen. There was nothing separating the two, so I watched as she thinly sliced a piece of meat and put a few pieces in a pan over the hearth. Sprinkling them with some kind of powder from a jar, she left them to sizzle in the pan for a little while then turned them once the outside was browned. The whole process took only a few minutes before she transferred them to a plate and brought them out.

They were still raw enough that they were leaving reddish juices on the plate but the sight of them made my mouth water. The demons seemed to prefer their meat on the rare side anyway. With no utensils on hand, I just picked up a slice and bit into it. Succulent and delicious, with a subtle tang of something I wasn’t familiar with, it suddenly made me feel a lot hungrier.

The flavour wasn’t quite like anything I’d had before, sort of like beef with evenly distributed fat throughout but gamier and sweeter. I assumed they must serve the same sort of meat at the manor, but none of it tasted like this. They must favour very different means of cooking for some reason. It didn’t make much sense to me; it was delicious like this.

The cook waited until I was finished with the first slice. “Do you like it?”

I nodded, frantically chewing and swallowing to clear my mouth so I could respond properly. “It’s delicious.” I felt a little self-conscious having someone watch me eat like this. “Aren’t you going to have any?”

She blinked, as if I’d suggested something unexpected. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll eat later.”

Was there some kind of etiquette to let your guests eat first? Or maybe it was only for people of higher social status? It might be worth asking Elmidath about later but it wasn’t important right now, best just to leave it. I was almost finished with my meal when she spoke again. “How did you end up working for Lady Sarinknell, anyway? It doesn’t seem like you’re from around here.”

I paused. How much should I tell her? There was probably no point lying about my origins; it’s not like I’d be able to answer any follow-up questions she might have. “Yeah, I’m not from around here. Not even close in fact. She summoned me here from my own world and bound me to her service.”

She whistled appreciatively but didn’t seem all that surprised. I suppose things like planar displacement weren’t out of the question when there was so much magic around. “You’re from another world? Wow. I suppose it makes sense though; you do seem pretty weird. No offense.”

“It’s fine, this world is still pretty strange to me so it’s no surprise I wouldn’t fit in.” I’d never considered myself particularly normal back on Earth either.

“Still, to get summoned by a Demon Lord as their bound companion… You must be blessed. I wish I was nearly so lucky.”

Blessed? How was being forced to live in this hellish place any sort of blessing? I was tempted to tell her it was more of a curse than a blessing but that didn’t seem especially diplomatic. “I… hadn’t really thought of it that way. This world is very different to the one I came from and I’m still adjusting to how things work here, but I can see how it might be considered a blessing.” I had ended up in a relatively high social position, at least relative to the peasants of this village. Along with being granted newfound power. Though I didn’t much see the appeal of that aspect if all I was going to do with it was fight for my life. I’d much rather have power that just let me do what I want without anyone bothering me, but I suppose that was too fantastical a notion even for a world as magical as this.

Also, I didn’t know Yuvina too well; but I was pretty sure she wouldn’t appreciate me complaining about my lot in life. Not when her people were forced to do exhausting manual labour to provide for the upper class. That never seemed to be something people were too fond of. Sure, these were technically demons, but the same probably went for them.

“Well, I hope you adjust quickly. You’re an important man now with important people relying on you.”

I hardly needed someone else to tell me that, but I could tell she was just trying to be encouraging so I let it go. “Thanks, I’ll do what I can. Visiting your village has really helped put things in perspective, as well as teaching me more about how everyday life works here.” I bowed my head. “I’m grateful for that as well as the meal.” I wasn’t actually all that grateful but the experience had been valuable, and it paid to be polite.

“Oh, don’t worry about all that. It was nothing, really.” She sounded a little embarrassed but her reservation seemed to be born mostly out of social convention rather than anything personal. “We’re all on the same side here, so we should help each other out when we can.”

I smiled, that was an admirable philosophy; not something I’d expect to find in a place where violence seems so common. “You’re absolutely right.”

She shifted smoothly into her next point, as if she’d been leading the conversation in this direction on purpose. “I could do with your help on something actually.”